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When you ride those amazingly cheapo Chinatown buses from New York City to Washington, D.C. it'll cost you less than 20 bucks, but you may be taking your life into your hands.

It turns out these buses, which pick up passengers curbside instead of a terminal like Greyhound, have fatal accidents seven times more often than their terminal-using competitors, according to a study by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Curbside buses have become insanely popular with students and other bargain-hunting travelers, especially those who want to get from, say, Boston to New York City, but can't cough up the $70 roundtrip fare. (The buses don't tend to travel more than five hours.) Sometimes these interstate buses only charge a whopping-ly low $1 per seat.

Unfortunately for all of us out there trying to save a buck, there's a downside.

The National Transportation Board found the curbside buses do not undergo routine checks because they bypass the terminals where check are normally conducted. There's also a lack of transparency because the companies sell their tickets through online brokers, which the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration doesn't have authority to regulate. Also, the drivers suffer from fatigue.

Overall, the low-cost bus companies still prove to be a safe mode of transportation, and of buses that travel on regular-scheduled hours they proportionally crash less than other types of bus lines.

The main problem is when curbside buses do get into an accident, there's more likely to be a fatality in the mix.

The Board decided to conduct the study following a bus crash in the Bronx back in March, which left 15 dead and 18 others injured.